Trust Fund Board awards over $100,000 in grants to help prevent child abuse

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – Child protection agencies in northern and western Kentucky will be able to train even more children, families and communities on how to prevent child abuse.

General Andy Beshear announces today that $70,000 in grant funding has been provided by the Child Victims’ Trust Fund.

- Advertisement -

The Attorney General’s Office administers the Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Board that allocates dollars from the Fund to support child sexual abuse prevention programs. The Fund is allocating over $100,000 this fiscal year cycle, with more than $70,000 going to two regional programs.

The two regional programs include western Kentucky’s Child Watch Counseling and Advocacy Center and northern Kentucky’s Family Nurturing Center.

Child Watch Counseling and Advocacy Center received $16,640 in funding for its “Safety Tools and Golden Rules” program. This curriculum delivers sexual abuse prevention education to preschool and elementary school-aged children in schools. Primary topics covered are body safety, abuse prevention and internet safety. The funding will provide training to more than 12,000 children in Ballard, Caldwell, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Livingston, Marshall and McCracken counties and 300 campers of the Kentucky Sheriffs’ Boys and Girls Ranch.

Family Nurturing Center received $56,000 in funding for its Stewards of Children Training that promotes core competencies in the areas of prevention strategies, recognizing the signs of sexual abuse, reporting requirements and responding appropriately to disclosures.

The training also includes a unique motivational component that directly addresses reluctance to report and the necessity of shared adult responsibility for every child. The funding will provide 225 Stewards of Children training’s in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties and will train 3,000 adults in target groups.

Additionally, Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky received $32,635 to create a research informed messaging platform designed to change social norms and practices in the Commonwealth. The resulting product, an action oriented, sustainable messaging platform, will be made available to partners through social media, webinars, conferences and other venues.

Beshear says the Child Victims’ Trust Fund is also providing $78,000 in grants to cover costs associated with more than 1,000 child sexual abuse medical exams. The funding will be shared among the state’s 15 Children’s Advocacy Centers.

Beshear recently joined students and staff at the Sixth District Elementary School in Covington to honor contributions made by the late Alvin L. Randlett to help protect Kentucky’s children. Following his passing, Mr. Randlett, a former employee of the Covington Independent School District, donated his estate, more than $175,000, to the Office of the Attorney General’s Child Victims’ Trust Fund.

A donation to the Child Victims’ Trust Fund can be made in three ways:

Beshear reminds Kentuckians that everyone has a moral and legal duty to report any suspicion of child abuse to local law enforcement or to Kentucky’s Child Abuse Hotline at 877-597-2331 or 877-KYSAFE1.